Bamboos & Grasses (SIMPLE STEPS TO SUCCESS)

164 Pages·2007·114.79 MB·English

Bamboos
and Grasses

Bamboos
and Grasses
Jon Ardle
LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH,
MELBOURNE, DELHI
SENIOR EDItOR Zia Allaway
ACtINg SENIOR DESIgNER Rachael Smith
MANAgINg EDItOR Anna Kruger
MANAgINg ARt EDItOR Alison Donovan
DtP DESIgNER Louise Waller
PICtURE RESEARCH Lucy Claxton,
Richard Dabb, Mel Watson
PRODUCtION CONtROLLER Rebecca Short
PRODUCED FOR DORLINg KINDERSLEY
Airedale Publishing Limited
CREAtIVE DIRECtOR Ruth Prentice
PRODUCtION MANAgER Amanda Jensen
PHOtOgRAPHY Sarah Cuttle, David Murphy
First American Edition, 2007
Published in the United States by
DK Publishing, 375 Hudson Street,
New York, NY 10014
07 08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © 2007 Dorling Kindersley Limited
text copyright © 2007 Royal Horticultural Society
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the copyright owner. Published in
great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is
available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7566-2691-4
ISBN-10: 0-7566-2691-9
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Contents
Designing with 6
grasses & bamboos
Find inspiration in these beautifully planted
grass and bamboo gardens.
Getting started 30
Learn about the conditions your plants enjoy
and how to plant them.
Planting recipes 58
Use these exciting planting combinations

to add drama to your garden.
Caring for your plants 100
Discover the best ways to keep your plants

looking good throughout the year.
Plant guide 120
Choose bamboos, grasses, and grasslike
plants from this comprehensive guide.
Suppliers 154
Index 156
Acknowledgments 160

Designing
with grasses
& bamboos
Whatever the setting, be it a gravel
garden, Asian-style design, or patio
display, bamboos, grasses, and
grasslike plants can make it special.
In this chapter, discover the beauty
of these versatile plants, and how
to create a range of exciting designs
by combining them with flowers,
shrubs, and trees.
8 Designing with grasses and bamboos
All-grass plantings
Planting a border with just grasses
can provide year-round interest and be
surprisingly colorful, with a sense of
movement that shrubs or perennials
simply cannot match.
Pictures clockwise from below
Color contrast The combination of the relatively wide,
bronze-red leaves of hook sedge (Uncinia uncinata rubra)
and the threadlike, narrow green leaves of clump-forming
Festuca glauca illustrates the contrast of hues that can be
achieved using grasses. Both these plants prefer acidic soil
and are evergreen, requiring only an annual tidy in spring.
Mixing sizes and textures Some of the best large
plants for the centerpiece of an all-grass planting are the
many cultivars of pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana).
Some can reach 10 ft (3 m) tall, with clumps of gray-green
foliage and huge plumes of “ostrich feather” flowers in
late summer (the dwarf cultivar ‘Pumila’ is better for
small gardens). In the foreground are smaller Stipa
calamagrostis, which flower for a long period, and one
of the best blue-leaved grasses, Panicum virgatum.
Compact and modern Snow, or tussock, grasses
(Chionochloa) are elegant, mounded plants with arching,
plumelike flowers, like mini pampas grasses. This broad-
leaved type, C. flavescens, is the hardiest tussock.
Winter structure Even deciduous grasses can contribute
much to the winter garden. The bleached straw “bones”
and flowerheads of Miscanthus can survive very harsh
winters and look particularly attractive rimed with frost.